Political Conservatives Form 'Shadow Cabinet'

A story in yesterday's editions of The Washington Post incorrectly stated that Grove City College is in New York, it is in Pennsylvania.

By Lou CannonBy Lou CannonFebruary 25, 1977

Political conservatives yesterday stole a march on the Republican Party by announcing formation of an "shadow cabinet" that will offer alternatives to Carter administration policies.

The cabinet, headed by National Review publisher William A. Rusher, is to meet regularly and present annual televised state-of-the-union programs. It is modeled after the English shadow cabinet, which in Great Britain is the alternative government waiting to take power.

Both former President Ford and Ronald Reagan have endorsed the shadow cabinet idea as a useful mechanism by which the Republican Party can comment on the Carter administration.

But the ideological differences within the GOP have made it difficult for the Republican National Committee to create such a mechanism. Rusher, the attorney general in the shadow cabinet and its chairman, said that these differences made it "practically impossible" for the GOP to carry out such an idea.

The cabinet, termend a "citizens' cabinet" by Rusher, is all white and all male. Its oldest member is well-known economist Henry Hazlitt, 82, designated as chairman of the council of economic advisers, and the youngest member is Rep. Larry McDonald of Georgia, 41, secretary of defense and the only Democratic member.

Howard Phillips, director of Conservative Caucus, which organized the cabinet, said that Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative writer, was asked to serve but turned down the request on grounds she was too busy going to law school and opposing the Equal Rights Amendment.

The other members of the cabinet, in addition to Rusher, Hazlitt and McDonald:

Secretary of state - Gov. Meldrim Thomson of New Hampshire.

Secreatry of the treasury - Hans F. Sennholz, chairman of the economics department at Grove City College, New York.

Secretary of commerce - John Harmer, former lieutentant governor of California.

Secretary of labor - Ron paul, who in 1976 was briefly a House member from Texas.

Secretary of agriculture - Rep. Steven D. Symms (R-Idaho).

Secretary of health, education and welfare - Robert B. Carleson, formerly welfare director for HEW and for Reagan, when the latter was governor of California.

Secretary of housing and urban development - John McClaughry of Vermont, a onetime special assistant on housing matters to President Nixon.

Secretary of transportation - Sam H. Husbands, an executive with the brokerage firm of Dean Witter and Co. in San Francisco.

Phillips said that a secretary of interior and budget director would be named soon, completing the cabinet. The cabinet secretary is Louis (Woody) Jenkins, a Democractic member of the Louisana state House.

Thomson and McDonald used the occasion of the cabinet's formation for a broad-scale attack on President Carter's foreign policies, which the New Hampshire governor said would result in "giving away America."

But Thomson praised Carter's recent letter to Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and the President's general support of human rights, saying that Carter "makes good sense" on this issue.